I am new to your forum, but wonder if anyone can advise me Purchased some ? Fargesia bamboo recently from a nursery on Vancouver Island This was in late March and canes were still brownish, with small number of green shoots looking to open Now almost two months later, two plants are in leaf ( but not thick) and the other two are still brown, with an odd leaf Am told the nursery has found a lot of this bamboo going to seed early this year, but that it will recover My reading on the net largely says that Fargesias often die off after going to seed Two questions, will they recover , and if so will they leaf out at all this year? Or should I ask for replacement plants?? Look forward to some input
Most likely fargesia nitida, which has been going to seed for a couple of years now...any half-decent nursery should know this, so you're well withn reason to ask for a refund/replacement.
If this was bought at the "Victoria Bamboo Nursery", I do feel for you. I have had a gardening client who spent alot of money, and was ignored when asked about replacement for their dying giant bamboo. If it is failing now, I would not hestitate to take it back. If you watch its slow demise, you may exceed the return policy time frame. I had this happened with a Japanese Maple. Its slow death took two full years. Meadow Oak nursery was not willling to replace it, despite the fact that it was thier plant which put verticillium wilt into my soil. Good luck.
At least two species have been flowering for some years now, what you want to buy is seedlings raised recently from plants that flowered. Flowering of Fargesia (at least the species that have been blooming recently) tends to occur at very long intervals, so the new crop should be good for longer than our lifetimes. Japanese maples looking good at purchase and then blighting off later may have bacterial wilt, rather than verticillium - unless the telltale streaking showing clogging of conductive tissue was seen in affected branches.
